Real World Instructional Design

The destination in the real world is Starbucks – website. I want to see what it takes to get a Starbucks Card. The instructions were pretty clear. The question was posed – what can I do with a Starbucks account? Three specific items were identified – manage and reload your cards, sign up for rewards, update your account info. Next step was to instruct me how to sign up, if I were still interested. Glad they told me first why I would like to sign up instead of having me go through the process only to find out that I was not interested. The next section was clear and easy – provide all of the data that is needed to have a card. The next level that they wanted to take me to was pretty obvious – now that you have an account – register your cards. Why? Free drink on your birthday – automatic enrollment of the rewards program (not defined what the program actually does) and lost card protection for your balance. This design was mindfully developed and tested with user groups I assume – clear and concise. The three things I am sure to remember is benefits of having the card.

Next real world stop was enrollment form for the ISTE conference in San Diego. It was the most confusing and difficult enrollment form that I have ever experienced. You would think it would have been simple and easy to navigate and quickly responded too. Instead it was totally ineffective in getting me to sign up. This complicated process should have been broken down into a number of smaller steps based on the interest of the participant. It would have been nice to have a quick enrollment process for basic conference attendance and have subsequent sections for all the special interest groups. It was not effective at all. I learned that I will never create a form this complicated. Also learned that an online enrollment should not take more than 5 minutes (25 minutes is way too long). Third lesson is one of the paradox of choice – there were so many items to choose that I lost interest in making decisions and that I just wanted to complete the basic enrollment.